The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has announced plans to acquire stakes in 6 private refineries across the country.
The state oil giant said the decision was in line with the Federal Government’s policy directive, which stipulates the mandatory participation of the corporation in any privately-owned refinery that exceeds 50,000 barrels per day capacity.
The directive also enables NNPC to uphold its statutory role of safeguarding national energy security.
This disclosure is contained in a statement issued by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Dr Kennie Obateru, in Lagos on Monday, saying that the corporation had identified at least 6 refinery projects in which it intended to seek equity participation.
Obateru said that 5 of them were at the developmental stage, with the Dangote Refinery being the largest of them.
He explained that NNPC, as the National Oil Company of Nigeria, primarily has a dual role of providing stewardship for the nation’s hydrocarbon resources, adding value to the resources for the benefit of all Nigerians and other stakeholders.
The NNPC spokesman, in his statement, said that the roles enabled it to achieve the twin objectives of providing energy security for the country and stimulating the nation’s economic development and growth.
He said NNPC’s strategic objective to ensure energy security and stimulate economic growth with limited resources required it to consider strategic partnerships with competent investors in sectors of the oil and gas value chain, especially where it currently operated on a sole risk basis.
Obateru said, “The oil refining sector is one of such segments where NNPC is revisiting its strategy in order to strengthen domestic refining capacity and guarantee National Energy Security.
“The new vision is to grow domestic refining capacity, improve petroleum products supply from our local refineries and become a net exporter of petroleum products.’’
He noted that the corporation’s move to buy stakes in the private refineries would not affect its commitment or jeopardize its effort to rehabilitate its own refineries and strengthen the domestic refining sector.
Obateru said the overall goal was to boost the nation’s refining capacity with a view to becoming a net exporter of petroleum products in the shortest possible time, thereby boosting the nation’s economy.
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It can be recalled that a few days ago, the NNPC said it was currently seeking to acquire a 20% minority equity stake in Africa’s biggest oil refining facility, Dangote Refinery, in a move seen as part of plans to further ensure an undisrupted supply of petroleum products across the country when the transaction pulls through.
A top official of NNPC stated that one of its divisions, the Greenfield Refining Projects Division (GRPD), was handling the negotiations with Dangote Refinery.